affordable access

When we think about the problem of achieving affordable access to the Internet for all, the discussion often focuses on broadband targets. These targets are moving goalposts as infrastructure improves. Broadband used to be defined at 256Kbps, now it might be 2Mbps or 5Mbps or something else depending on who you talk to.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that any person in possession of a mobile phone must be in want of an Internet connection. Please allow that mangling of Jane Austen to exist as a placeholder for the assumption that everyone having affordable access to communication infrastructure

There are many factors that have the enabled the successful scaling of the Internet into a global phenomenon: a consensus-based, voluntary approach to standards; decentralised design; and, a vast body of openly-licensed software have all contributed.